Carnage-Free Keys Says She Dodged a Bullet Already at Wimbledon

By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday July 2, 2025

Four of the top five seeds failed to reach the third round on the women’s side at Wimbledon, but No.6-seeded Madison Keys is sitting pretty and feeling like luck may be on her side at these Championships.

Keys, who was nearly ousted in her first-round match against Spain’s Elena Gabriela Ruse, found a way through that troubling encounter from a set down, and on Wednesday she bounced Serbia’s Olga Danilovic to reach the third round at Wimbledon for the ninth time in 11 career appearances.

She says that watching seeds scatter as they have over the first three days of Wimbledon can definitely be unnerving for top players.

“I think when you are sitting and watching everyone kind of fall, it kind of adds a little bit of stress to the situation,” she said. “I was pretty close in my first round, so I feel like I dodged a bullet a little bit.”

Second-seeded Coco Gauff, third-seeded Jessica Pegula, fourth-seeded Jasmine Paolini and fifth-seeded Zheng Qinwen have all bowed out early, and more could come before the third round begins. After Paolini’s loss to Kamilla Rakhimova on Wednesday, 15 of the 32 women’s singles seeds had already been eliminated.

“I really believe upsets are contagious,” said Brad Gilbert, commentating for ESPN. “You cannot help but feel what is happening.”

Keys believes that fatigue is playing a factor for the top players during this particularly gruelling part of the season that features two majors in the span of five weeks.

“Honestly, I think everyone is just kind of tired, and the season has been long already,” she said. “It’s hard. It’s been six months. I feel like we’ve all played a lot of matches. So obviously the people that are ranked higher, in theory, have played more matches than others. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. There’s bound to be at some point in the season where people have dips.”

But Keys, who will face 37-year-old Laura Siegemund in the third round on Friday, is feeling like the worst might be behind her.

“I feel like getting through that was kind of my own personal battle that I had to kind of get through [was important],” she said. “I feel like once I was able to do that, even seeing all of the results that have kind of happened the last two days, kind of adds a little bit to the nerves, but I feel like for myself I kind of feel like I already got past it a little bit.

“So, yeah, I feel like now I have an opportunity to kind of play some of my best tennis.”